Participation in athletic activities can expose the participants to physical harm. Collisions between participants frequently occur in certain sports (e.g., football, field hockey, lacrosse, ice hockey, and the like) which can cause physical harm and as a result, personal protective equipment (“PPE”) has been developed. Mouth guards are coverings worn over the teeth to protect against concussion during participation in sports, and in doing so, the teeth also receive protection. The use of mouth guards is well known. Additionally, the use of helmets in a variety of different sporting events is well known, and in many cases is mandatory. The primary purpose of these helmets is to protect a wearer's head from injury in the event that it is exposed to force. Such helmets typically have a hard outer shell that covers an energy-absorbing material. The outer shell typically covers an expanded inner layer that lies between the outer shell and the wearer's head. The inner layer is intended to absorb energy in the event it becomes necessary in order to minimize the energy transmitted to a wearer's head. Consequently, there is space between the wearer's head and the outer shell.
Injury to athletes can also occur when competition for prolonged periods in an abnormally high temperature environment is conducted. Football, lacrosse, and other sports may require high levels of exertion from the athletes for substantial time periods in elevated temperatures. Such exertion levels coupled with high temperatures also have the potential to injure a person.
Individuals such as steel mill and power plant workers and heavy machine operators perform duties in such environments and can be exposed to considerable risk of illness and/or injury due to heat stress. These particular environments can involve elevated temperatures, but exposure to undue low temperatures can also result in problems, for example hypothermia. Workers who perform duties in the environments mentioned above may also have specialized PPE, some of which may include an enclosed protective suit. Such suits may contribute to an increased heat level to the worker thereby increasing the amount of heat stress. In addition, because the workers are enclosed in such suits, external temperature monitoring devices would not be reliable either from an actual body temperature sensing standpoint or from the standpoint of providing a readily available signal of elevated temperatures to the worker.
Past efforts to protect against such heat stress have included monitoring the environmental condition per se that is the ambient temperature, radiant heat, humidity, etc. However, such monitoring only indirectly indicates the possible temperature of the person.
It has been recognized that internal body temperature is an accurate parameter for assessing heat stress. Continuous monitoring of the internal temperature by means of a well-placed thermometer could provide useful and direct information about a person. There have been efforts to use skin temperature and heart rate as parameters in assessing internal temperature. These prior approaches have various shortcomings in that they are uncomfortable, difficult to use, and in some cases, lack reliability, and accuracy. Sensing oxygen saturation of the blood also assists in determining the well-being of a person. Oxygen is the most essential element to life; no human life thrives in the absence of oxygen. Sensing a person's temperature and oxygen saturation unobtrusively would be helpful in determining a person's vital signs and useful in determining the well being of that person.
In sports and other activities having mandatory PPE, such as mouth guards and helmets, it would be desirable to also install an instrument or instruments that can monitor a person's vital signs for heat stress. Such monitoring could lead to increased safety. Because the athlete or worker must wear the PPE in any case, an unobtrusive incorporation of the sensor or sensors and other vital signs equipment would assist in monitoring the person's well being under the actual conditions the person is experiencing. Additionally, because such athletes or workers must be unrestrained in their movements, wirelessly transmitting the vital signs information from the PPE sensors to a remote location for monitoring would be desirable.
Hence, those of skill in the relevant art have identified a need for monitoring a person's vital signs during competition or other activities so that unacceptable levels of heat stress or other stress can be detected before an adverse reaction occurs. Those skilled in the art have also recognized a need for accurate, reliable, easy-to-use, and physically unobtrusive monitoring of vital signs. Further needs for remote monitoring of vital signs and wireless communications of relevant data have also been recognized. The invention fulfills these needs and others.